I think Yunnan Sourcing is not a bad place to start. You may want to consider trying something that's a few years older. Ripe can be good, but you need to buy stuff from Menghai factory - otherwise they're very likely to be bad (not always, but often enough).

Two of the ripe pu's were the only two pu's available in Edmonton (as far as I know). They were just called golden pu'erh. The other was a vietnamese ripe pu from CantonTeaCo. The raw pu was a Song Lao Ban from ZhiZhengTea. Do you have any specific pu you would recommend? Also, since I'm looking to buy samples, my price range is pretty flexible.

Since you haven't really tried much i'd say just pick out some that interest you. I don't drink young sheng but i think YS branded cakes get good reviews so those might be worth checking out. They also have a good selection of DaYi shu that are worth adding a few standard recipes to your order. Add a couple non DaYi shu just so you can see the difference.

TomVerlain wrote:one of the ripe was probably golden sail - which you can find in supermarkets / chinese shops. Not the best, not the worst.

I vote for this too. It's a typical Cantonese style shu, not stinky. Besides, it costs only few dollars and serves as a good price benchmark. If you don't enjoy another tea much more than it, then you know you don't want to spend much more money on another tea than that.

Wow their prices made me laugh. $300+ for a smaller cake seems like way too much money for something so young. I'm open to the idea of truly amazing young tea being pricy but some of their teas just seem over the top. They have a cake from 2007 in their "aged" section. I wonder if the Gedeng 2003 Raw Puer Cake is going to be in the antique/vintage section next year.

SilentChaos wrote:I see, I see. I haven't tasted many pu's but I'm definitely looking for the rich, strong but smooth pu, and not fishy. I'm rather confused about the difference between aged ripe and aged raw

I found some Menghai Dayi Shu on YS that look interesting. Is Menghai's sheng/raw worth trying out? Or do I look to other factories for raw?

I think others probably have already said it, but from what I've gathered (Im in a similar position as you), you need to just start buying tea samples.

Read blogs and the forums for teas that others like or review. Then buy those teas and see if you find what they do. Not everyone likes the same characteristics in tea, so in a sense, there is no "one tea that everyone will love and everyone should buy right now".

You need to sample many, many teas in order to find out what tea you like. That being said, it is important to purchase tea from reputable dealers. I use teachat to find dealers other people have found tried and true. Read through the forums to find out which dealers others have found satisfactory and then just start sampling.